Ted, there is not much overlap in the SNDK and SSTI products. SSTI is one of the key producers of embedded memory, mainly lower capacity units, used in cell phones, set top boxes, etc. These are very low cost units, and while demand may be increasing, it is not increasing as fast as demand for higher capacity removable flash memory units. The demand, particularly in digital cameras, increases not only from the increase in camera units sold but from the continuing higher resolutions in those cameras. A few years ago, a typical medium price digital camera had between 1.2 and 2.1 mp resolution. Now the medium price cameras generally have at least 2.1 mp, with a growing number routinely providing 3+ mp. Those who buy cameras with 3 to 5 mp resolution will probably not be satisfied with flash cards having less than 128 mb capacity. So in terms of pixels per camera, the increase comes both from higher resolution and higher numbers sold. This is due both to technology improvements and lower prices for the memory cards.
One can assume, as do some of the investment analysts, that as demand for capacity expressed in mb picks up, companies like SNDK will make more money. But the bottom line really depends on which company is the lowest cost producer. It isn't clear if SNDK is the low cost producer at the moment, but I think it is close to being the low cost producer.
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